Boston College’s 71st annual Laetare Sunday celebration—the BC Alumni Association’s oldest tradition—will take place on March 27 and feature an address by Connell School of Nursing Dean Katherine E. Gregory.

Laetare Sunday is the fourth Sunday of Lent and marks the season’s midpoint. The day will begin with Mass at 9:30 a.m. in Conte Forum, with University President William P. Leahy, S.J., presiding. A brunch will immediately follow.

Katherine Gregory

Katherine Gregory (Photo by Lee Pellegrini)

Gregory, who received a Ph.D. from Boston College in 2005, assumed the deanship of the Connell School last July. She is a nurse leader known for her collaborative partnerships with clinicians and scientists and her research into intestinal disease in preterm infants.

Gregory’s research is supported by both the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Nursing Research. A fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, she serves as an assistant in biology in the Mucosal Immunology Lab at Massachusetts General Hospital and as a senior scientist in pediatric newborn medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH). She is the neonatal editor of the Journal of Perinatal and Neonatal Nursing.

A member of the Connell School faculty from 2006 to 2014, Gregory helped to establish BC’s Haley Nurse Scientist Program, which funded scholarly activities of both CSON faculty and clinical nurses at BWH. She served as the inaugural Haley Nurse Scientist.

For more information about Laetare Sunday, and to register, go to the Alumni Events Calendar.


Kathleen Sullivan | University Communications | March 2022